Mazmur 6:6

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ¹ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ² 

Mazmur 16:7

16:7 I will praise ³  the Lord who ⁴  guides ⁵  me;

yes, during the night I reflect and learn. ⁶ 

Mazmur 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ⁷ 

you tried to destroy me ⁸  in the intense heat ⁹  of summer. ¹⁰  (Selah)

Mazmur 42:3

42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ¹¹ 

all day long they say to me, ¹²  “Where is your God?”

Mazmur 139:12

139:12 even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, ¹³ 

and the night is as bright as ¹⁴  day;

darkness and light are the same to you. ¹⁵ 

[6:6]  ¹ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ² tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”

[16:7]  ³ tn Heb “bless,” that is, “proclaim as worthy of praise.”

[16:7]  ⁴ tn Or “because.”

[16:7]  ⁵ tn Or “counsels, advises.”

[16:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “yes, [during] nights my kidneys instruct [or “correct”] me.” The “kidneys” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s moral character (see Ps 26:2). In the quiet darkness the Lord speaks to his inner being, as it were, and enables him to grow in moral understanding.

[32:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ⁸ tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.

[32:4]  sn You tried to destroy me. The psalmist’s statement reflects his perspective. As far as he was concerned, it seemed as if the Lord was trying to kill him.

[32:4]  ⁹ tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”

[32:4]  ¹⁰ sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.

[42:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”

[42:3]  ¹² tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.

[139:12]  ¹³ tn The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[139:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “shines like.”

[139:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like darkness, like light.”